News

With major titles still dominating the UK and Ireland box office, it is a quiet weekend for new releases as event cinema leads the way while Nightbitch and Rumours also launch.

Andre Rieu’s 2024 Christmas Concert: Gold And Silver lands in 642 cinemas for A Piece Of Magic. The Dutch conductor’s last release opened with £700,000 while his 2023 Christmas concert scored £1.2m.

Indian actionPushpa 2 is screening in 230 venuesvia AA Films. The Telugu-language sequel follows Pushpa as his sandalwood smuggling business faces strong opposition from the police.

CinemaLive is playing music documentary Rm: Right People, Wrong Place in 109 sites this weekend after opening on Thursday.

Disney’s “Moana 2” dominated the U.K. and Ireland box office with a £12 million ($15.2 million) debut, according to numbers from Comscore, marking a strong start for the animated sequel.

The film led a robust weekend that saw Universal’s “Wicked” holding strong in its second frame with £8.3 million, bringing its cumulative total to £28.5 million.

Paramount’s “Gladiator II” continued to perform in its third week, adding £2.5 million for a total of £23.5 million. Studiocanal’s “Paddington In Peru” demonstrated staying power in its fourth week, collecting £1.8 million and pushing its total to £27.3 million.

Black Bear’s new entry “Conclave” opened with £1.1 million, while Warner Bros.’ “Red One” rounded out its fourth week with £425,853, bringing its cume to £6.6 million.

BFI Distribution’s “All We Imagine As Light” debuted with £111,033, while Entertainment Film Distributors’ “Heretic” added £96,583 in its fifth week for a £5.7 million total. Park Circus’s 20th Anniversary 4K restoration of...

‘Comandante’ (The Commander) is a war drama film co-written and directed by Edoardo De Angelis, starring Pierfrancesco Favino. The film is set to open the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival on September 30th.

Synopsis

During the onset of World War II, Salvatore Todaro assumes command of the Italian Royal Navy submarine Cappellini. While navigating in the Atlantic on a dark October night in 1940, he encounters an unidentified merchant vessel sailing without lights. Employing his cannons, Todaro successfully sinks the ship. In a moment that would later be recorded in history, the Commander makes a crucial decision: he rescues the 26 shipwrecked Belgians who otherwise faced certain death in the vast ocean. Accommodating the survivors aboard his submarine necessitates three days of surface navigation, thereby exposing himself and his crew to enemy forces and placing their lives at risk.

Comandante (2023) The Director Edoardo De Angelis

Edoardo De Angelis is a director,...

‘Comandante’ (The Commander) is a war drama film co-written and directed by Edoardo De Angelis, starring Pierfrancesco Favino. The film is set to open the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival on September 30th.

Synopsis

During the onset of World War II, Salvatore Todaro assumes command of the Italian Royal Navy submarine Cappellini. While navigating in the Atlantic on a dark October night in 1940, he encounters an unidentified merchant vessel sailing without lights. Employing his cannons, Todaro successfully sinks the ship. In a moment that would later be recorded in history, the Commander makes a crucial decision: he rescues the 26 shipwrecked Belgians who otherwise faced certain death in the vast ocean. Accommodating the survivors aboard his submarine necessitates three days of surface navigation, thereby exposing himself and his crew to enemy forces and placing their lives at risk.

Comandante (2023) The Director Edoardo De Angelis

Edoardo De Angelis is a director,...

Matthew McConaughey playing Elvis? Here’s the crazy new series, Agent Elvis, in which the legendary singer fights crime alongside his monkey with high levels of… testosterone.

In addition, the voices of Kaitlin Olson, Johnny Knoxville or Don Cheadle guarantee us a daring, very loutish – and quality – series.

About the Series

A series that will serve to reconcile some fans with the streaming network that, let’s face it, has everything and now gets into adult animation like Harley Quinn (HBO Max) and, with a similar style, takes us to Las Vegas to contemplate the eccentricities of this Elvis turned James Bond.

A hilarious series produced by none other than Priscilla Presley who was married to… you get the picture.

A lot of the Tarantino touch mixed with psychedelia.

Enjoy this very, very offbeat series aimed at an audience eager to live an experience… on the other side of the familiar dark side.

If you watched Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis" and thought to yourself, "this is good, but I wish Austin Butler was animated and also had a gun and was solving crimes," have we got the series for you! With Elvis fever running wild, the King of Rock and Roll has a new adult animated show due to arrive soon on Netflix, featuring Matthew McConaughey in the voiceover role he was born to play — Elvis Presley, but a super spy. The animation is sharp and snappy, the language and violence certainly aren't for kids, and despite the seemingly ridiculous premise ... "Agent Elvis" looks pretty damn awesome.

The series has been in the works since 2019, back when it was called "Agent King," but with "Agent Elvis" heading our way faster than you can put on a new pair of blue suede shoes, here's everything you need to know before the King enters the building.

In today’s Global Bulletin, Netflix commissions Telugu-language anthology “Pitta Kathalu” in India and graphic novel adaptation “Heartstopper” in the U.K.; WarnerMedia announces HBO Max Latin America leadership roles ahead of the platform’s rollout in the territory; ITV Studios opens its Factual Pitch program; NewImages Festival strengthens its Xr alliances in Taiwan; and Filmzie launches its TV series programming.

Anthology

After 2020 Tamil-language anthology “Paava Kadhaigal,” Netflix India has teamed again with Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP and Ashi Dua’s Flying Unicorn Entertainment for Telugu-language anthology “Pitta Kathalu” (Short Stories).

Tharun Bhascker (“Pelli Choopulu”), B.V. Nandini Reddy (“Oh Baby”), Nag Ashwin (“Mahanati”) and Sankalp Reddy (“Antariksham 9000 kmph”) direct the four-part anthology film, which features stories about bold women.

The cast includes Lakshmi Manchu, Amala Paul, Shruti Haasan and Eesha Rebba as the leads and the film also stars Ashima Narwal, Jagapathi Babu, Satya Dev, Saanve Megghana and Sanjith Hegde.

Nearly two years after Downton Abbey went off the air, most of the beloved ensemble cast is back in action on screen and stage, with Michelle Dockery, Dan Stevens and Joanne Froggatt leading several high-profile projects coming out this fall.

2017 Fall Preview: Et's Complete Coverage

Even though the period drama ended in 2015, this year can definitely be dubbed “2017: Life After Abbey.” And to think, all we care about is a Downton Abbey movie!

Check out what’s coming up (and highlights of a few things you may have missed):

Michelle Dockery

Good Behavior (TNT)

Premieres 10/15

Godless (Netflix)

Premieres 11/22

Photo: PBS / Getty Images / TNT / Netflix

Dockery, aka Lady Mary, was one of the first cast members out of the gates with a decidedly un-Downton-like character, playing con artist and recovering drug addict Letty Raines on TNT’s Good Behavior. “I was very fortunate when it came along,” Dockery told Et. “I wasn’t...

There are some films that you see and you instantly know what you want to say about it, how you want to say it and exactly what you think. Then there are the types of films that make you think. You need to go away and understand what you saw and then write. The Viceroy’s House is one of those films.

A story about the transfer of power from Britain to India and the partition is something I think every South Asian with an Indian or Pakistani heritage is familiar with. It is a sensitive subject that has been presented many a times in the Indian film industry and is used even now as a main topic or an underlying backstory. The stories we are familiar with, are generally told from the South Asian perspective. Gurinder Chadha has turned the story around, and told it from the British point of view.

New York — The third season of "Downton Abbey" ends this Sunday with a bang.

Exactly what that bang is, we're not going to say, in deference to the maybe half-dozen "Downton" fans who still don't know the shocking truth.

The larger point remains that after Sunday's "Masterpiece Classic" (airing at 9 p.m. Eastern on PBS), viewers must suffer "Downton" withdrawal until next season.

But until then, we'll have our memories.

And what a season this has been! The beloved valet Mr. Bates was sprung from jail and a trumped-up murder charge to begin married life with his bride, the plucky lady's maid Anna. Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, has gotten Downton Abbey back on its feet financially with an able assist from his son-in-law and presumptive heir, Matthew Crawley. Matthew wed his true love, Lady Mary Crawley. But another of Robert's daughters, Lady Sybil, died tragically during childbirth.

Through it all,...

Single Handed Season 2 Acorn Media

Kieran Kinsella

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Single Handed, Set Two

Originally, Single Handed was produced by Rte for broadcast in Ireland but London based ITV bought the rights to show the rural cop drama and it quickly became a hit in Britain. Season two was co-produced by the UK network along with the Dublin based team that were responsible for the original.

In the drama, Owen McDonnell plays Jack Driscoll who is a surprisingly laid back police officer who is for the most part single-handedly keeping the folks of the West of Ireland on the straight and narrow. In this box set, Jack Driscoll solves three mysteries each of which lasts two episodes. The stories are real and involve issues such as arson, long lost relatives and out of control teenagers. The setting...

Exclusive: Acclaimed British TV writer-producer Lynda La Plante, creator of Prime Suspect, is set to develop Villains of All Nations, a drama series for Lionsgate TV based on historian Marcus Rediker’s book about the “Golden Age” of piracy in the 17th and 18th centuries. The project is described as a "modern, bold and gritty interpretation of the genre," using Redkier's book as a springboard. Lionsgate TV Group president Kevin Beggs said the company had been looking to work with La Plante for a while. “Not only is she a brilliant writer, she happens to have a longtime love and knowledge of the subject matter, and we believe she can achieve exactly the kind of ‘Deadwood on the high seas’ sensibility we’re looking for," he said. On Villians of All Nations, La Plante joins executive producers Alexandra Milchan (Street King) and Alessandro Camon (Thank You for Smoking). Redike is...

HollywoodNews.com: Helen Mirren’s iconic, Emmy-winning role in “Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection” helped the show win more than 20 major international awards, including seven Emmys® and a Peabody. Now fans will be able to relive the classic moments on their home television when it debuts on DVD from Acorn Media on September 7, 2010.

Dame Helen Mirren (The Queen) stars as Detective Jane Tennison, “one of the great character creations of our time” (The Washington Post), in this revolutionary police drama broadcast on PBS to universal acclaim and more than 20 major international awards, including seven Emmys® (“Outstanding Miniseries” and “Outstanding Actress”), eight BAFTAs, and a Peabody. The 9-disc set includes nine feature-length mysteries as well as a 50-minute behind-the-scenes special ($124.99, www.AcornOnline.com).

Tenacious, driven, and deeply flawed, Tennison rises through the ranks of Britain’s Metropolitan Police, solving horrific crimes while battling office sexism and her own demons. “Rare...

Oh, but women have come a long way in London’s Metropolitan Police since Lynda La Plante thrust Helen Mirren up the chain of command to Dci in Prime Suspect in 1991, almost 20 years ago. Today -- or back in 2003, when The Commander debuted -- there are enough women high up in the Met that they can afford to be mavericky rulebreakers like Clare Blake... at least on TV. As commander of the Serious Crime Group -- several steps above the rank of Dci and the highest-ranking woman in New Scotland Yard -- Blake has to have been a cocky so-and-so to get where she is, and that’s probably what fuels her recklessness once she’s there. And that’s where this four-disc set of The Commander begins: with Blake having an affair with a murderer she sent away a decade earlier, a guy just out on early parole and...

The first part of a special The Bill two-parter plus the conclusion of The Commander boosted ITV1 to ratings victory on Wednesday night. The Bill: Proof of Life, which took the officers of Sun Hill to Germany, dominated the 8pm hour, averaging 5.64m (24%). ITV1's success continued at 9pm, where the final part of The Commander pulled in 5.68m (24.1%), up 610,000 from yesterday. Each episode of the Lynda La Plante crime drama won its timeslot, even on Monday when it went up against Spooks. BBC Two's Heroes was significantly up week-on-week with 2.32m (9.7%); companion show Heroes Unmasked was also up, averaging 1.42m (6.2%). 972,500 (5.9%) tuned in for a first look at the next episode on BBC Three. A Dispatches film on Channel 4 that looked into poverty and spirituality of all shades in Nigeria had 1.27m (5.4%), while 938,400 (more)...

Amanda Burton has voiced her desire to take on a comedic role. The Commander actress, known for portraying earnest characters, revealed to Digital Spy that she expects to find it difficult making the transition to more humorous parts. She said: "Yeah, I suppose I would [like to do comedy], but I don't think you can make that crossover very easily when you're seen (more)...

Amanda Burton has revealed that she will star in at least one more instalment of The Commander. Burton, who returns to the role of Clare Blake for Lynda La Plante's police drama next Monday, told Digital Spy that her fondness for the character will bring her back for another case. "I thoroughly enjoy the character and I love all the other characters as well," she said. "It's a good show. It has a lot of humour in it as well as the dark side." However, Burton noted that just as her time on the BBC's Silent Witness ran its course, she would have no hesitation (more)...